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Triphis in the White Monastery: Reused Temple Blocks from Sohag

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Triphis in the White Monastery: Reused Temple Blocks from Sohag TRIPHIS IN THE WHITE MONASTERY: REUSED TEMPLE BLOCKS FROM SOHAG Abstract: Preliminary report on the Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman tem- ple blocks reused in the Church of St. Shenoute near Sohag. While some materials can be traced to sites further south, including Abydos, Nag‘ el-Mesheyekh and el-Mensha (Ptolemais), previously unrecorded inscriptions confirm that a group of limestone ceiling blocks derive from the temple of Repyt at nearby Atripe. This discovery may support Shenoute’s repeated claims to have destroyed this particular temple. «Almost everywhere in the Walls of the Monastery, in the Pavement that is before the Chancel, and in the great and beautiful pair of Stairs that lead up to the Sleeping-place of the Monks, are certain great Stones full of Cyphers and Hieroglyphick Figures placed not right; by which we may understand, that those that have put them there had no knowledge of this mysterious Tongue.»1 The inscribed Pharaonic spolia within the Coptic church of St. Shenoute near Sohag have fascinated many visitors2. The church was built c. 450 CE, 1 Johann WANSLEBEN, The Present State of Egypt, or: A New Relation of a Late Voyage into That Kingdom, 1678, p. 225. 2 PM V, p. 31; E. AMÉLINEAU, Les moines égyptiens, vie de Schnoudi, Paris 1889, p. 88; W.G. DE BOK, Matériaux pour servir à l’archéologie de l’Égypte chrétienne, St. Petersburg 1901, p. 44, 46, 48; W.M.F. PETRIE, Athribis, 1908, p. 11 and 14; ID., Ancient Egypt 2, 1915, p. 27; S. CLARKE, Christian Antiquities in the Nile Valley, Oxford 1912, p. 148; G. LEFEBVRE, Deir-el-Abiad, in: F. CABROL – H. LECLERCQ (eds.), Diction- naire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie (DACL) IV 1, Paris 1920, col. 469-470; R. WEILL, Monuments égyptiens divers, XII: Monuments d’Amasis et de Hakoris au Deir el-Abiad, RT 36 (1914), p. 97-100; U. MONNERET DE VILLARD, Les couvents près de Sohag, II, Milan 1926, p. 123-124; H. KEES, Kulttopographische und mythologische Beiträge, ZÄS 64 (1931), p. 108-109; H. GAUTHIER, Un autel consacré à la déesse Mehit, ASAE 35 (1935), p. 207-212; S. SAUNERON, Villes et légendes d’Égypte XXXII – Le chaudron de Sohag: comment naît une légende, BIFAO 69 (1970), p. 54; P. VERNUS, Inscriptions de la Troisième Période Intermédiaire (II): Blocs du grand-prêtre d’Amon ˆIwpwt remployés dans le Deir-el-Abyad, BIFAO 75 (1975), p. 67-72; F.W. DEICHMANN, Zum Altägyptischen in der koptischen Baukunst, MDAIK 8 (1939), p. 36; ID., Die Spo- lien in der spätantiken Architektur (SAWM 1975, Band 6), Munich 1975, p. 56-60, Abb. 22-25; Cl. TRAUNECKER, Essai sur l’histoire de la XXIXe dynastie, BIFAO 79 (1979), p. 408, 422, 433; B. VERBEECK, art. Sohag, in: LÄ V, col. 1052-1054; ID., De Kloosterk- erken bij Sohag: De architekturale beslechting van een ideologisch conflict, Phœnix 27 (1981), p. 94-96; H.G. SEVERIN, Dayr Anba Shinudah: Architectural Sculpture, Coptic Encyclopedia III, New York 1991, p. 769; Y. EL-MASRY, More Recent Excavations at Athribis in Upper Egypt, MDAIK 57 (2001), p. 209; P. GROSSMANN, Christliche Architek- tur in Ägypten (HdO I, vol. 62), Leiden 2002, p. 171-172; O. PERDU, Inscriptions Saïtes I, Paris 2002, p. 82 (No. 13). Ancient Society 40, 197-213. doi: 10.2143/AS.40.0.2056256 © 2010 by Ancient Society. All rights reserved. 993524_AncSoc_40_07_Klotz.indd3524_AncSoc_40_07_Klotz.indd 119797 226/11/106/11/10 114:554:55 198 D. KLOTZ while Shenoute was archimandrite of a federation consisting of the so- called «White Monastery» and two other religious houses3. While some observers have speculated on the possible origins and religious significance of these pagan fragments, most of the reused blocks have remained unpub- lished. Beginning in 2007, the author conducted an epigraphic survey at the White Monastery in order to record all blocks presently visible in the church4. While a full publication of the Pharaonic blocks is still in progress, the present contribution highlights an object of particular importance for the history of the White Monastery and its region. Nearly a century ago, Petrie suggested that the primary building mate- rial for the church of St. Shenoute came from the temple of Repyt at Atripe5, the closest surviving stone monument, roughly three kilometers south of the White Monastery6. Although this hypothesis is quite reason- able, direct archaeological or textual evidence for such a provenance has not been published up to now7. Alternatively, Kees proposed that the 3 For a recent discussion of the construction date, see P. GROSSMANN, Zur Stiftung und Bauzeit der grossen Kirche des Schenuteklosters bei Suhaq (Oberägypten), ByzZ 101 (2002), p. 35-54. 4 The epigraphic mission at Sohag is part of the White Monastery Church Documenta- tion Project, directed by Bentley Layton, under the auspices of the Yale Monastic Archae- ology Project, Stephen J. Davis, executive director. Our research was given generous support by the Marilyn M. and William K. Simpson Endowment Fund for Egyptology at Yale University, under the direction of John C. Darnell. For project updates and detailed maps of the church, see www.yale.edu/egyptology/aw_white.htm. The author would like to thank Bentley Layton for the invitation to work at the White Monastery, and for pro- viding valuable suggestions on this project and the present article. 5 W.M.F. PETRIE, Athribis, p. 11 and 14; this suggestion is largely accepted today; see e.g. Y. EL-MASRY, MDAIK 57 (2001), p. 209; P. GROSSMANN, Christliche Architektur in Ägypten, p. 171 and 532; K. LEMBKE – C. FLUCK – G. VITTMANN, Ägyptens späte Blüte: Die Römer am Nil, Mainz 2004, p. 110; C.T. SCHROEDER, Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe, Philadelphia 2007, p. 95. 6 Several Pharaonic tombs in the western gebel overlooking the White and Red Monasteries are even closer than Atripe (B. OCKINGA, A Tomb from the Reign of Tutankha- mun at Akhmim [Reports of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 10], Warminster 1997; Y. EL-MASRY, Rock-Tombs from the Late Old Kingdom in the 9th Nome of Upper Egypt, SAK 36 [2007], p. 183-216), but they would not have provided blocks for the church. 7 G. WAGNER – V. RONDOT, ZPE 103 (1994), p. 250, n. 6, recently claimed: «Le texte de la Vie de Chénouda parle de la destruction et de la réutilisation des monuments antiques de la ville voisine et précise que cette question fut l’objet d’un désaccord entre le saint et les maçons, le premier préconisant le remploi contre l’avis des séconds.» How- ever, the relevant section of the Life of Shenoute (cf. N. LUBOMIERSKI, Die Vita Sinuthii [STAC 45], Tübingen 2007, p. 44-45, Episode 21, for the sources), says nothing about the local town or the origin of the blocks. The dispute between Shenoute and his stone- masons only appears in the expanded Arabic redaction (E. AMÉLINEAU, Monuments pour servir à l’histoire de l’Égypte chrétienne aux IVe et Ve siècles, p. 353-354), and is appar- ently an allusion to the proverbial cornerstone which the builders rejected. 993524_AncSoc_40_07_Klotz.indd3524_AncSoc_40_07_Klotz.indd 119898 226/11/106/11/10 114:554:55 TRIPHIS IN THE WHITE MONASTERY 199 church was built on the site of an earlier temple of the god Horus-ímy- snw.t, since a naos of the latter god currently resides within the east end of the long hall of the church, and tentatively identified modern Sohag with Pharaonic toponym Nsw (var. Sw), the cult center of this particular deity8. Although many Pharaonic blocks were reused in the church walls, the majority of objects from the White Monastery that have already been published are merely scattered on the ground throughout site, both inside and outside of the church. These monuments include: 1. Blocks from a funerary monument of the Generalissimo and High Priest of Amun, Iuput (Ywpt), from Abydos (Dynasty Twenty-Two)9 2. Granite altar of the goddess Mehyt,10 dedicated by Necho II and usurped by Psammetichus II (Dynasty Twenty-Six)11 3. Statue base of the general Neshor (Dynasty Twenty-Six)12 4. Granite naos of the god Horus-ímy-snw.t13, dedicated by Hakoris (Dynasty Twenty-Nine)14 8 H. KEES, ZÄS 64 (1931), p. 108. 9 P. VERNUS, BIFAO 75 (1975), p. 67-72; B. VERBEECK, Phœnix 27 (1981), p. 95, Fig. 22; C. MANASSA, The Late Egyptian Underworld: Sarcophagi and Related Texts from the Nectanebid Period, I (ÄAT 72), Wiesbaden 2008, p. 4, n. 21; two additional blocks have been found since the publication of Vernus. For the name and career of Ywpt see recently F. COLIN, Les Libyens en Égypte (XVe siècle a.C. – IIe siècle p.C.). Onomas- tique et histoire (Diss. Brussels, 1996), I, p. 36-37, 57-58; II, p. 5-7. 10 For the goddess Mehyt of Eastern Behedet (Nag‘ el-Mesheyekh, near Girga), see primarily S. CAUVILLE, L’hymne à Mehyt d’Edfou, BIFAO 82 (1982), p. 105-125; O. PERDU, Exemple de stèle archaïsante pour un prêtre modèle, RdE 52 (2001), p. 184, n. 5 and 8; for an overview of the site, see recently B. OCKINGA – Y. AL-MASRI, Two Ramesside Tombs at El-Mashayikh, I, Sydney 1988, p. 1-2. 11 H. GAUTHIER, ASAE 35 (1935), p. 207-212, only published the decoration of two sides of the altar based on photographs, but decoration is actually preserved on four sides; for the usurped cartouches on this altar, see recently R.B. GOZZOLI, The Statue BM EA 37891 and the Erasure of Necho II’s Names, JEA 86 (2000), p. 73, I.b3 (with further bibliography).
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